Here are some Tips and Ideas to help make your Holiday meals special and stress free for you and your guests.

People are always stressing about their Turkeys. Here is Howards method that has proven over time to be a great way to make a juicy turkey and saves oven space and time when serving it to your guests. You should do this a day ahead of time so that you have time on the day of your event to relax.

1. Place turkey in a large roasting pan and season to taste. 
2. Prepare your stuffing according to your favorite recipe and stuff it inside the turkey. Make enough so that the stuffing overflows the turkey.
3. Wrap super tight with aluminum foil and place in a 350 degree oven. This keeps all the juices in.
4. Cook,covered until inside temperature is 160 degrees aprox. 12 minutes per pound. (We recommend getting a thermometer, they are good to have around anyway). Do not pick at the turkey, it is not fully cooked yet!
5. Uncover the turkey and cook for another 15 minutes or so to get the turkey browned.
6. Remove Turkey and let cool.
7. Pull stuffing out of turkey and place in another pan to go in the oven about an hour before you serve it. This will allow it to fully cook through and create a nice crust on the top.
8. To carve, carefully cut the Turkey breasts off the bone, try and keep them in one piece. Cut the thighs and legs off as well. Place these in another pan along with the excess gravy and cover tightly, depending on the size of the turkey one or two 9x13 pans will do. (This will create more room in the oven so you can heat more things up.)
9. Place in oven to finish cooking about an hour before you will be serving it. Cook the turkey until it has an inside temperature of 180 degrees.
10. Take out of oven, slice the breasts and thigh, platter and serve.

We have been doing this for many years and and we found that doing most if the carving beforehand, makes things easier at mealtime and it creates more oven space because you are not trying to stick this big turkey in the oven aong with other sides.

If you want to cook the turkey the way your mother made it, go ahead, you can still pre-carve the turkey well ahead of time and place in the oven to finish cooking. This will save you time when you would rather be entertaining your guests.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email Howard at Howard@dontdodishes.com or 972-385-1821.

Another great tip is to use our Elegant Dining ware, this way you can relax after the meal and not have to Do The Dishes!